Tuesday, March 01, 2011

From a pedagogic perspective, the Grade 11 Immigration Stories project certainly encouraged the students to use technology to create digital media stories. KDHS serves a diverse community and has students and families attending from around the world- Argentina, Mexico, Israel, South Africa, Chile, Brazil, Canada and the US. Every family has a personal family story about their journey to Vancouver. Throughout the project, students were provided with support as they researched and recorded their unique family story. As the students explored their roots, they uncovered family artifacts and information of which they were previously unaware. Relationships with the older generation of their family trees were strengthened and many of the videos created included three generations and numerous languages.

The project was a resounding success and achieved the goal of sharing these stories with the broader community. The completed projects were presented by the students at the annual King David High School’s Arts Night to parents and members of the Vancouver community. At the event a representative from the Jewish Historical Society of British Columbia asked for permission to add the videos to the website of the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia. The videos listed below include their link to the website:

Making the project increasingly relevant to the 21st century student, by using digital storytelling, enhanced the success of this year’s project. The technology served as a tool to motivate our teenage students as it is a language with which they are very familiar. We continue to note the increased excitement and motivation on the part of the students when they use this technology to research, develop and present a project. The digital format has allowed the family interviews, especially those of the older generations, to be preserved.Not only did the project invite student – family collaboration, it also facilitated inter-curricular cooperation. The school Librarian, IT and Arts departments worked with the Jewish History teacher to provide support and expertise to the students. They were also supported by the Librarian at the Jewish Museum